Death Zone
by SadisticSmartass91
Summary: Two years after the outbreak, human and vampires alike are fighting to survive, hiding themselfes and fearing the night. When two opposing partys strand in the middle of nowhere, can they put aside old conflicts to fight their shared enemy? Itachi x Oc; some yaoi (if i can manage)
1. Prolouge

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto characters

Hope you like where thsi is going

* * *

The death zone, as they called it. Wild land, bare of any humans. Where once little towns sat cozily between hills and on small rivers everything was destroyed now.

The remands of one town after the other passed under them. Empty buildings, many of them partly destroyed, rubbish and signs of rushed escapes or useless fights were everywhere. The towns were slowly reclaimed by nature. Plants growing in the streets and the buildings, animals were fleeing beneath them. Only they could live in these zones nowadays, since they weren't seen as prey by them, at least most times.

Apart from the cars, rubbish and other things left during escape the streets were empty, not even bodies could be found anymore. He knew it wouldn't stay like this. As soon as night breaks they would crawl out from their hiding places, deep inside those dark, empty houses of the towns they were passing.

This town, what was it called again? Oh well, names didn't matter anymore. For them it was town number 5B327. The 327st town in district 5, area B. They actually bothered dividing whole Japan (which actually was nothing but a big death zone now) into different districts with different areas and numbering the towns. Lost ones as well as living ones, which got an extra SA for "still alive" in their number.

Most of the bigger citys had at least partly survived. Humans could live there hiding behind walls or in safe basements underground during the night.

He had no idea how the rest of the world was doing. They weren't able to make any contact yet. Perhaps they were somewhat better off. Being somewhat better prepared for the horror to come after hearing the news of this unnatural catastrophe in Japan. After all it had started here.

Here the first reaper appeared. It was also here the first vampires appeared. They weren't such a big problem though. Humans continued living like before, even six years later. Well, of course many were killed by vampires and it got all big on the news every time with hunts and demonstrations following after. But not all vampires were like that, most continued living unnoticed by society. And mind, they weren't that much different from humans.

They were simply ill. Infected by a virus, which the normal human would know as one reason for causing leukemia. Like normal humans having leukemia, the vampires body can't produce enough working blood cells to hold his body alive and like with humans a simple, regularly blood infusion is all they need to survive. Unfortunately for the vampires, the virus they are infected with is mutated and very reluctant to leave their body. Thus a bone marrow donation won't work for long. As long as the virus is still present, their bone marrow will get infected again very soon.

The virus has surprisingly other side effects though. A vampires genetic code is changed, so the body can compensate the blood cells of drunken blood, be it animal or human, and use them in his own body. That is why vampires actually have the need of drinking blood.

But don't ask where their special, rather magically skills are coming from. He got absolutely no idea, well no one knows why, but he definitely isn't unthankful for them. Those skills go from control of elements, mind control to seeing the future and other crazy things. He for example had control over his tattoos. Had he known of that beforehand his body would probably be plastered with tattoos right now. He could shape shift his body into one of his tattoos or even materialize them as self-dependent moving and thinking individuals.

It was some great skill he got. Which probably was one of the reasons he got to be one of the leaders of a somewhat bigger town which had vampires and humans knowingly live in it together. The only one, as far as he knew. Town number 17 in district 4 part V. They called it _Vampires Den_, he had no idea which idiot came up with this hilarious name, but it got stuck in peoples heads and tries to rename it hadn't worked so far.

Most humans still despised vampires, which is also why he made sure their existence and location would stay secret for now. They would let other towns know of them, when the time seemed right. One enemy breathing down their necks was enough to deal with for now.

He also was a leading commander of an army, most of them vampires. His own small unit called themselves _Dragons Breath_, which also wasn't his idea.

Actually he got pretty far for his tender age of 21. Tomoya Shuichi was his name. He had an average height of 5,7 foot and was pretty slender. Some even got the nerve calling him feminine.

He did have muscles, mind. Not much, but they were good enough so far. He had never been able to build up more, he tried though.

His hair was a dark brown, nearly black and middle long, mostly tide to a low ponytail. His eyes were a sapphire blue, tending to change to silver blue or ghostly pale if he got moody.

"Commander, we are approaching Nagoya now, should we make a recount while we're here?"

"That won't be necessary. It was already done two days ago. I thought I put that report on your desk?"

The white haired male besides him only grinned.

"Must have forgotten to read it then."

Shuichi shook his head in displeasure. If his people continued slacking of like that those monsters might have another feeding feast in the near future.

He could still feel the bruises from some weeks ago as they got into a fight in this very city they were approaching right now.

They were pretty much unprepared for a TR, a "thinking reaper", to turn up this far away from the still living towns. Thus they didn't though it to be too smart. But damn were they wrong, that bitch managed to lure out and kill three and injure another seventeen of his people badly before they managed to chop of her head.

Reapers. There should be around 23 of them still in this town. The tracking vampires counted them as good as possible over most of the country. You don't want to know the exact numbers.

The number of reapers, their approximate strength and the closeness to living towns as well as the size and defense of those towns are all criteria for which area they would clean out next. The task seemed nearly impossible, as soon as an area was cleaned out it new reapers would move to it, but they had to start somewhere.

Sadly, the reapers didn't die of hunger, at least not that he knew of. It would have been way to easy this way. Thus, chopping of their heads or burning them was the only way to get rid of them. Luckily they burnt very well, even the sun was enough to set their skin to fire. Which was the reason they only came out during night and sometimes on dark, clouded days.

They did seem to age though. Being able to shape shift into a giant wolf and biting down on so many of them, that just the thought made him want to throw up, he had noticed that younger reapers were quite, how should he describe it, juicy, why older ones turned to dry dust between his teeth. It was revolting. But it also seemed to depend on the time they last had any vampire blood. It seemed to rejuvenate them.

"Are you all right? You're getting a little bit green. Don't tell me you're getting air sick now. The helicopter still needs about an hour to get to the city."

"I'm fine, don't bother."

Yes, vampire blood was the only thing reapers could eat. Apparently some amount of human or animal blood wouldn't kill them right away. But it was like poison to them, they would get weaker and eventually die if they consumed too much.

So, if they actually caught humans, they would bite and abduct them, wait for them to turn into vampires and then devour them.

If they caught a vampire…well, you surely can make up the rest by yourself. But if a bitten vampire manages to flee and survive, which apparently many do, they turn into reapers themselves.

Most reapers lose their consciousness and logical mind and are simply blood addicted machines. They aren't completely dumb, but rather think like (none too smart) animals.

But it happens often enough that for the first few hours or even days newly turned reapers can still think like humans and remember they're previous lives. The so called TRs. Mostly they are void of emotions. And those are the most dangerous. Many towns were lost in the past two years because a TR got behind the security. They're now ghost towns, just like the one below.

Sometimes, vampires that haven't been bitten suddenly turn into reapers.

It seems to be a virus, probably the same that is responsible for turning humans into vampires, just again somewhat mutated. And all vampires seem to have it in them, just inactivated.

They haven't found out yet what exactly activates it, but many vampires that turned to reapers had been depressed or underfed.

The lack of blood for the many vampires of his town was one of their bigger problems. Their scientists are working hard for a solution, but didn't have much luck till now.

So they needed other sources.

This sources mostly being human soldiers from other towns. Of course they wouldn't kill them, that definitely wouldn't help stopping the human race from dying out. They simply ask for a blood donation. "Ask" of course meant force, since they wouldn't do it freely till now. They would be knocked out and their blood taken via clean syringes. The vampires would make sure the humans got back safely to their towns and then get the hell out of there.

Which was what they were doing right now. The helicopter being full of cooled blood bags from a successful assault.

"Commander, it seems we got quite the problem."

Shuichi sighed. Heads were surely going to roll if he heard the sentence "I need to pee" again this day.

"What now."

"We are being tailed, look between the clouds above us."

Shuichi blinked in slight confusion and leaned out the cockpit to look at the thick clouds above them. He narrowed his eyes. There, a small spark of metal shone between the clouds before vanishing again.

"Another helicopter?! Who are they and how could they follow us unnoticed! God damnit Dawn!"

He locked at his back towards their tracking vampire Dawn, who was sound asleep in his seat. Shuichi turned around and shook the man awake, who now looked at him sleepily. He pointed towards the sky above them.

"Tell me who the hell is following us up there!"

Dawn yawned.

"A helicopter with five people inside, commander Uchiha Itachi and his little brother seem to be under them as well."

"Uchiha? From district 2Z town 102 SL, near Osaka? Didn't we just assaulted one of their units?!"

Suigetsu grinned.

"Well, seems like they didn't take it kindly."

Shuichi rubbed his temples.

"Yeah, sure they wouldn't. Still they got smart heads, a big army and many humans under their protection. It wouldn't benefit our course to kill of this towns commanders. Just because they might find out our towns location. If their town is lost we're one big step closer to the human worlds end. Besides they might be good partners one day."

"They, are you kidding!"

"Yes they, now get some warning shots at them, warning mind. Don't hit them, just get them of their course for now. We will flee through the clouds. Dawn, I'm sure they got a tracking devise onto our heli. Find it. Now."

"Yessir"

Suigetsu slowly leaned out of the cockpit, ready to fire some water bombs near the other helicopter.

Just as he fired a strong wind came up, making their helicopter reel and nearly making him fall out.

The water bomb, which was supposed to shoot past the humans, instead hit them full force. Apparently it didn't break anything, but someone fell out seemingly unconscious.

"Shit!"

Without thinking twice about it, Shuichi grabbed one of the life packs.

"Continue the mission! That's an absolute order! I will be back in some days."

He threw of the head set and jumped after the falling human.

"What! Get the fuck back in idiot!"

It was futile though. Suigetsu sighed in defeat.

"What are we doing now?"

"Exactly what the commander ordered us to do. Let's get out of here, Shu will manage."

At least he hoped so. He threw one last look at the ground before they vanished into the clouds.

Great. One of their most important commanders just got lost in the middle of the death zone. And night was coming soon.

* * *

AN: This story plot just wouldn't leave my head, so I had to write it down. I do hope it continues to work out so well. It actually felt quite easy and fun to write this. The updates might be a bit shorter than with my other storys...might.


	2. Day Zero

"Get me down! Now!"

Sasuke kept his gaze locked to the rough spot where his brother should have hit the ground, but they were way too high up to make out any details. He hadn't even seen his brother fall down the whole way, his body simply vanished, being too small for his eyes to recognize anymore.

And now they were getting further and further away, they were going to leave Itachi behind. Why didn't they have any parachutes on this thing. Those belong to the standard equipment.

"We can't turn back now. We got a leak in our tank because of their attack. It might just be enough now to get back into the citys reach. Sasuke be reasonable!"

Kisame tried calming the younger Uchiha down, even if he himself nearly jumped after his friend. He would have, if they had any parachutes. When they got back heads would roll! Whoever equipped this helicopter would wish he was never born.

"Then we can as well get down now!"

"Got damnit he's dead! And now shut the hell up, we have more important problems than that." Apparently Sai's men were more worried about their own live than the fact they just lost the oldest Uchiha son, whom they should have protected.

Sasuke let himself fall back into his seat, all energy run out. Tears filled his eyes as he held his head in his hands.

"No…"

Kisame would have strangled that man on the spot, but he was more worried about Sasuke. Itachi would never forgive him if that boy decided to do something stupid. He sat down besides Sasuke, laying an assuring arm around him.

"Don't listen to them. You saw that vampire too, the one that jumped after Itachi?"

Bracing himself up and rubbing his eyes dry he nodded.

"Yeah, you really think he saved Itachi?"

"Not if the shot I fired after him hit."

Kisame glared at Sai, he would definitely strangle that man one day. He couldn't understand why Itachis father liked to be around those emotionless morons. Perhaps because he was one himself.

"Well, you don't go jumping after people hundreds of feet over the earth just to make sure they're really dead after they reach the ground. Besides, weren't you the one believing those vampires never had a bad intention assaulting our troops but no other choice to do so?"

Sasuke sighed. He had mentioned something like this to his brother some days earlier. They had argued about it.

"I really hope you're right."

* * *

_Some hours earlier…_

Knock knock…

"Commander, the general send me."

Itachi glared at the closed door and put away his shaving tools, drying his skin with a towel.

What could his father possibly want from him now? He came from a mission in the death zone today and just saw him nearly an hour ago during a meeting.

"Come in"

One of his fathers lieutenants, Sai if he remembered correctly, came in and bowed slightly.

"I'm here to brief you on your next mission, which is starting right now, Sir."

Itachi raised an eyebrow. He wasn't left any time to relax was he?

"Go on"

Sai straightened up.

"About half an hour ago we lost contact to one of our units that had been sent out to retrieve goods from the death zone north of us. Instead a tracking device that one of my own man had with him got activated. He had the order to fasten it on one of those vampires, if they should be assaulted again.

You, commander Sasuke, I and two other men are to track the signal back to their hide out as soon as it starts moving. You may choose one of your own men to accompany you, Sir."

Shortly said, he would have to make himself ready now. He rubbed his temple in annoyance.

The way Sai had said it, it nearly sounded as if this unit was supposed to be a bait for the vampires.

"What about the lost unit?"

"Sir, another team will check up on them as soon as we leave."

So they didn't care about what happened to those men.

"It may not be those vampires this time, but someone or something else that got to them."

"That risk had to be taken, besides it would already be too late now."

Why did he even bother arguing? Even if he didn't like this coldness Sai and his fathers men showed, they were ensuring their survival. It was all that counted nowadays.

He just hoped he wouldn't lose his humanity too.

"Alright, inform my brother and Hoshigaki-sama. I will meet everyone down at the airfield.

Sai bowed and left him to get ready.

As he arrived at the airfield a grumpy looking Kisame and Sasuke and an impassive Sai together with another man he didn't knew greeted him. Sai and the man bowed before him.

"Sir, the signal started moving. We have to make haste before it is out of reach."

Itachi nodded for him to go on then and moved into the helicopter with everyone else. They soon started to pursuit the vampires.

Personally he thought their behavior to be weird, his brother had mentioned it too already. He couldn't make up his mind about their intention. Vampires were their foes, they killed countless humans. Then why weren't those ones behaving like it. They never killed, they only stole some blood and not much either.

He confirmed it with other citys too, they weren't the only ones assaulted. Of course he didn't told anyone about it yet, he still wasn't convinced of the vampires being friendly, like Sasuke thought.

But he even found a pattern in their assaults. They changed their hunting area regularly and would never assault the same unit twice a month. If a man had changed out of an assaulted unit into another one within a month, which was then assaulted, they wouldn't take that mans blood.

Which meant the vampires knew their solders identities, which unit they belonged to and when and where this unit would be out of their city. This was what was making him nervous.

They might have a mole in one of their citys, even in more than one city and perhaps they were human. It wasn't that easy for a vampire to get into a city nowadays.

They had followed them east for a little over an hour and an half now, skidding around citys here and there. Most of the still living citys were near the coast anyway and far away from Tokio. He wasn't that much surprised, that they were moving into the direction of Tokio. What better place was there to hide a lot of vampires than there, were no other living towns were anymore.

"Sir, it looks like we have been noticed, shall we move back?"

Itachi leaned out the cockpit, noticing another helicopter just beneath them. Well shit, he hadn't realized they were this close. No wonder they had been noticed. What did they have that tracking device for anyway? When he got back he would have to need to talk with his father about the common sense of his people, which they seemed to have lost somewhere on the way.

"Let's fall back for now. We will see if they notice the tracking device, if not we will continue. This time with a bigger space between us, please. We are not to take any risk to our lives and …"

That moment something seemed to hit their helicopter. It jolted and Itachi, who had no safety belt around him, was thrown to the back.

He felt a harsh pain at the back of his head, before he noticed himself falling.

"Itachi!"

His brothers horrified face was the last thing he saw before darkness engulfed him.

...

At least this was what he remembered last.

He fell from a helicopter flying some thousand feet over the ground. Basically, he should be drop dead. But for him to be dead his head definitely hurt way too much.

Groaning he opened his eyes and touched his throbbing head. It was bandaged.

Slowly he took in his surroundings. He was in a windowless, rather big but low room. It had a sturdy looking trap door in its ceiling with a small iron ladder in the wall. The room had futons, blankets, food and water stocks and other small necessities in it.

He himself was laying on a futon near the wall with a thick blanket around him. The room seemed rather cold.

A small wireless lamp was sitting above his head illuminating the room into cold light.

Opposite his futon and the lamp, a young man being engulfed in a blanket sat on another futon, leaning against the wall. With his eyes closed and head angled to the side slightly he seemed asleep. But a loaded hand gun lay next to his hand.

The man could be mistaken for a younger version of himself, but only by people that didn't know him.

Even though there were no special signs, no way to tell the difference between a human and a vampire, just by looking at him Itachi knew the young man was a vampire. One from the helicopter they had been pursuing.

He looked to his side. There his gun and other things he had with him had been laid out neatly. Slowly he made to grab for his gun.

"Stop that, you think I threw myself out of a helicopter flying hell knows how high, saving your ass from going 'splat' on the ground, bandaging your head, just to have a hole put through mine?"

The vampire gave him a somewhat tired, irritated look.

"If I had wanted you dead I wouldn't have bothered, you are safe around me, Uchiha Itachi."

Itachi took his gun, the vampires eyes never leaving his, and sat up slowly, leaning himself up against the wall just like his companion and laying the gun next to him.

"What about my men?"

"You needn't worry, they should be fine. I have to apologize, we didn't intend to hit you. It was an accident."

Itachi slowly nodded, so they had just wanted to make their escape. If what the man said was true.

"Where are we?"

"We are in Nisshin, close to Nagoya. This room was prepared by my men after the Aichi was attacked. It's a basis for our troops during missions."

"Are we alone then?"

"Yes, my men got the order to move back to our city."

Itachi was deep in thought by now. He said city, which meant their hide out might be bigger and have more people than they had thought.

"What do you plan on doing with me now?"

The vampires crossed his arms and cocked his head slightly.

"Nothing, nothing but to ensure your survival. You're a good enough commander to openly fight the reapers, as are the men of your city. We seem to have similar goals and how's the saying 'my enemys enemy is my friend'."

The _nothing_ seemed to be a try to make new alliances.

"Similar goals? Which would that be?"

"To survive this and to get rid of the reapers."

"And those are the reasons you saved me?"

"They have a part in my actions, yes. And it was partly our fault that you fell, besides why would I just watch another men fall to his death if I could save him."

A vampire with morality, that one was knew to him.

"And who are you and where are you from?"

The other man hesitated, probably debating on how much was safe to reveal.

"I'm Tomoya Shuichi, commander and one of the leading heads in our city."

He was someone high ranked then. And he actually risked his live for him?

"Then, are you sure you should have risked your live for me? If you are important for your city I don't think your people would be very thrilled to hear that, mind that they might meet some difficult situations without you there to help them. Quite reckless, I have to say."

Shuichi rubbed his head in hold back shame, turning slightly pink. Apparently he hadn't thought about it this way as he made his decision (not that he had much time to decide) and now felt embarrassed in front of the human commander.

Itachi wanted to smirk in triumph, but kept his face blank. Shuichi didn't seem to have much experience in leadership. Which didn't surprise him, he seemed no older than Sasuke.

"Are you scolding me now or what? Shouldn't you be grateful I did it? I'm pleasantly surprised though. I had believed you would be hissing and spitting at me as soon as you woke up."

Itachi shook his head in hold back amusement. Somehow he liked the man. It felt easy talking to him.

"I may not like your people very much, with a good reason. But such childish antics probably wouldn't help my case right now."

Shuichi nodded slowly.

"Well, you are just as calculative thinking as I heard. I ensure you though, that you and your people have nothing to fear of mine."

Itachi raised an eye brown at that. He could very well decide this for himself. And those constant assaults on their troops didn't put them in a good light.

"You said you're one of your citys heads."

Shu shook his head before Itachi could continue his question.

"Would you mind waiting till tomorrow before peppering me with any more questions, I might answer them then. It's already way past midnight and I would like to get some sleep before setting off. But you won't need to ask much about my city anyway. Because that's where we are heading to."

Itachi wondered about that.

"We are? And you believe I will just tag along?"

Shu glared at him. He wanted to sleep for god's sake.

"Look, my town is closer than yours. I don't want to wander through the death zone any longer than necessary. Wandering alone would be somewhat too dangerous, even if I now about places to stay at night. And I don't trust your people not to shot me on sight. You will have to trust me about your safety though. Seems you got no other choice but to tag along."

What he said seemed true enough, partly. Itachi still had his doubt.

"What are your plans with me, if we reach your city?"

Shuichi looked hurt.

"Didn't I answer that one already? You're not a prisoner or something around the line. We will bring you back to your own city and forget about the whole ordeal. Besides, didn't you want to know more about the vampires city anyway?"

The man was smarter than he seemed to be.

"But I won't force you, you have till sunrise to decided."

And this was as far as Itachi could push the vampire for answers.

Shuichi turned around and laid down on his futon, pulling the blankets around him again. Apparently he now felt save enough to sleep around the human.

Itachi did the same. Shuichi was right, finding their hideout was his original mission. He wouldn't get a better opportunity. Still, he feared the vampire commander might not be as inexperienced as he seemed and have some plan up his sleeve. He needed to think this through very carefully.


	3. Day One

Itachi woke up some hours later. A look at his wrist watch told him that it was shortly before sunrise. He looked up to where the vampire was, apparently still deeply asleep.

Getting up quietly he slowly started packing his things together. He checked his weapons and munition and redid the bandage on his head. Only now did he notice that he had a laceration on the back of his head, which was already stitched up. He looked back at the sleeping vampire. He really must have hit his head hard, if he didn't notice someone penetrating his scalp with a needle. He was really sensitive in this point. Actually his head was still throbbing.

A water bottle and a package of pain killers had been laid next to the futon. He took one of the pills and put the rest into one of his jackets pockets.

Since he didn't have the fitting equipment for this sort of situation, he searched around the room for things he could use, like a backpack, food and water rations. He found everything easily. Just one thing he hadn't found yet: a radio set. He wondered if Shuichi had one. He should, but perhaps it got lost as he got him here.

Suddenly he threw over one of the boxes accidently. His coordination was a little out of order, probably because of the hit on his head. The sound of the box hitting the ground woke up a startled Shuichi. He grabbed for his handgun, looking around and sighing as he saw the human picking up the fallen box. Laying down his gun he stood up groaning.

"You could have woken me earlier." The sun was already up by now.

"I know."

Itachi continued searching through the last boxes. Shuichi yawned, the upcoming journey seemed very promising, note the irony. He stood up grabbing some things from the food storage and his back pack for their breakfast. His belongings were mostly packed up and he had everything necessary already with him from the live pack he grabbed before jumping out the helicopter.

Itachi soon joined him, sitting cross leg on the ground. He eyed Shuichis meal with thought, he had Onigiri with him, which looked fresh made.

"Where did you get the Onigiri from?"

Shuichi nearly choked on his bite, he barely kept back a small cough.

"You see a vampire eating for the first time and instead of wondering why I don't drink blood but eat normal food, you simply ask where I got it from. You're the first then. That is, if this really is the first time you see a vampire eat?"

Itachi just kept staring at the vampire silently. Shuichi shifted around nervously for some moments, before sighing in defeat and shoving the box with Onigiri over to the human. Trying to start a conversation didn't seem easy anymore.

"We always pack some sort of live packs with fresh food for each mission. One for every person that is taking part and independent from the approximate time the mission will take."

Itachi nodded and took an Onigiri. He approved their way of preparing for the worst at any time. And it didn't surprise him seeing Shuichi eat normal food. He knew that vampires only needed the blood to restore their own blood cells. So they still needed to eat other food to gain energy.

"Say, don't you have any radio sets around here or with you?"

Shuichi gave him a somewhat regrettable smile.

"We don't have enough to equip any base with one. I had one with me, but unluckily it got destroyed."

He showed him the side of his back pack, where the radio set normally hung. It was reduced to some pieces hold together with cables. The back pack too had a rip in its side, which was stitched up.

"Did you get shot at?"

Shuichi nodded.

"Your men didn't seem very appealed by me jumping after you, but the bullet missed."

"I guess I have to apologize then."

It probably was Sai or the other guy who shot at him, neither his brother nor Kisame would have done it.

"Is it possible that we might come over another hide out on our way, perhaps with a radio set in it?"

"Yes and no, if we keep up a good speed we will reach other bases every evening. We have many of them around this area. Unfortunately I can't remember any of them having a radio set. I know it would be way easier if we could just call a helicopter to pick us up, but it probably won't happen."

"Won't your people search for you?"

Shuichi shook his head.

"They're forbidden to do so. We need all our available people for some mission at least the next three days."

Itachi nodded in understanding, but didn't continue his questioning. He had the feeling he wouldn't be told about the suppose of this mission anyway.

They finished their breakfast in silence.

"Have you decided where you are heading to?"

"I guess I don't have much choice but to accompany you."

Shuichi nodded at that and stood up, shouldering his belongings and taking his hand gun. Itachi copied him. He climbed up the ladder and opened the look, slowly pushing the heavy trap door open. Light flooded the room. They climbed up, rearranging their packs.

The building the room belonged to was completely destroyed. As Shuichi closed the trap door again Itachi could see a bright yellow cross on its outside. He guessed it to be a mark for their bases, which was very important information. Looking around some more he slowly recognized the town. Shuichi already told him they were in Nisshin, but hearing and seeing the real thing are two completely different things.

"It was destroyed just a week ago. I was here, as it happened, trying to help."

They had started walking along the streets by now.

Shuichi looked somewhat sad, he was probably thinking about the people that died here. How he came to think of this, he didn't knew. Itachi had come to know vampires as cold and cruel, but there where exceptions for nearly everything. And he hadn't met that much vampires anyway and never under good circumstances.

In the light of the day he could have a better look at Shuichi. First of he noticed that the vampire was smaller and more slender than himself. He was curious about how the vampires in this city would be and about Shuichis character. He seemed simply human, a trade he had never noticed before in any vampire he met. But it could all be a fake too.

"Let's get out of here, this place creeps me out."

Shuichi turned right, skidding around junk and keeping a safe distance from the buildings, avoiding dark and small streets. Itachi knew why. He had often enough seen reapers jump out of buildings, grabbing a victim and be gone again, besides the sun shining.

"How long will it take us to reach your city?"

"About five days, if we don't meet any trouble."

Itachi looked at Shuichi expectably, but the vampire didn't seem willing to tell any more. Apparently he didn't want him to know where they were heading to.

They continued on their way in silence. Shuichi was beginning to doubt his decision. Perhaps it wasn't the best idea to take the human, who was actually still his enemy (they just had some sort of silent peace as of right now), to the city. The others would be happy with him.

But they had to start making alliances someday. For one to ensure their survival and their life after this war like state was over. Hiding themselves from society would work out this time, and after the reapers were gone (hopefully) the vampires would be the humans next main target.

He intended to prevent this. And which way would be better than convincing one of japans most famous and powerful families from their honesty and good will. Showing Itachi his town could very well change his opinion on vampires. It would be the first step of a long way, but it could also go deadly wrong. That all depended on how good he could show the vampires positive trades and on how Itachi would take it all up. The younger brother would have been way easier to convince, but also had less influence.

At midday they ate a cold meal near a small stream. Whit their walking speed they reached their destined town, Okasaki, before a good time before sun down.

"All right, if I recall right the base should be somewhere on the outskirts of this town. We will part here and search for it separately."

He rummaged through his back pack and got out two small, short range radio headsets, giving one to Itachi. After turning them on and switching them onto the same frequenzes they parted, turning into opposite directions.

It took a while, but Shuichi finally found the place. It was a small adjoining building to a bigger restaurant next to it. Probably it was once used to store food. Shuichi switch on the call button on his radio set.

"I found the place. It's on the south-east side of the town."

"All right."

Shuichi leaned back against the wall next to the door, enjoying the warmth of the sun. They were lucky they got into this situation in early autumn, instead of winter. It was still warm and the sun was shining longer.

It only took Itachi only some minutes to find him. Shuichi took out his gun and stood by the door. Itachi got out a flashlight. Even though this was one of their bases, there was still a chance the reapers had gotten into it while there was no one. Better be safe than sorry.

Slowly Shuichi turned the lock and pushed the door open, Itachi screened the room with the flashlight. It was safe.

Together they walked in. Itachi locked the door behind them while Shuichi put his belongings near the next wall and light up their little lamp for the night. Even though it wasn't sun down yet, they were both tired and wouldn't need to go out today anymore. He laid out two of the futons stored here. The room was smaller than the one before, the adjoining door to the restaurant was sealed shut. Shuichi checked it before he sat down on his futon to join Itachi for their evening meal.

They both eyed the other warily, eating in an awkward silence. One thing had been bothering Itachi nearly the whole day now.

"Won't you need blood sometime? How do you intend to get it?"

Itachi wasn't willing on spending any of his own.

Shuichi swallowed the food he was chewing. He had wondered when that subject would come up."

"There's no need for you to worry. I will take care of that myself. And I don't feel any thirst for blood, you can sleep safely."

Itachi raised an eyebrow, telling Shuichi with his look that he wanted to know more. But Shuichi withstood it, staring right back. If the human had a question he would have to speak up this time. He was a vampire, no fortune teller. Besides, he didn't felt like having a conversation right now. He was tired and had tried stirring up a conversation often enough over the day. Apparently Itachi didn't like talking while they were walking.

"I'm not sure if I can believe you, I never heard of a vampire having no blood thirst. But that aside for now, you avoided my original question."

He wasn't scared of being bitten from Shuichi. He believed him to have enough control of himself and even the story with having no blood thirst could be very well true. But the problem stayed, Shuichi would need blood at least once in the five days their journey was supposed to take.

The vampire shrugged his shoulders, too tired to argue now.

"I guess I could catch an animal if it is really necessary, there are enough rabbits around here. The problem is that I can't tell when I actually need to take real blood, only when the blood loss is showing in symptoms, like being dizzy. For now I got these, they should be enough."

He held up small glass bottle filled with red/white capsules. Itachi took the bottle from Shuichi, looking it over. There was nothing written on it.

"What are those?"

"Blood pills."

Shuichi sounded somewhat proud, but again he wouldn't continue talking. Itachi glared at him as the silence grew, his mouth twitched. Allright, Shuichi was as stubborn as his little brother, but with a calmer, superior attitude.

"Are you going to tell on your own or do I need to pull the details out of you question by question? You were more talkative some hours before."

Shuichi sighed and rubbed his face. He felt quite tired suddenly.

"There are blood cells produced from modified algae in them. If you don't mind I would like to tell you the rest another time. We should rest while we can."

Itachi nodded reluctant. Hadn't the vampire said something similar the day before? He would have liked to know more about those blood pills. At least he still had some days to find out more.

As he crawled under his blanket Shuichi was already asleep. For a vampire he didn't seem to have much stamina.


End file.
